While voting remains open, the scores have remained fairly static over the past month showing a clear victory. Deborah Peel, MD has won the debate for Patient Privacy Rights, exposing the dangers of UPIs in electronic health record systems. If you have not already, you can still vote “No” to UPIs, and help protect patients, privacy, and progress toward patient-controlled electronic health records. If you are in the main article, voting takes place on the left side of the screen below the picture of Michael Collins. You can also use this direct link to vote after reviewing the full debate.

To dispel the myths of UPIs:

Trying to separate UPIs from financial records would be like trying to separate SSNs from everything they have been linked to, including medical records!

UPIs will give government, industry, data miners, and others greater ability to collect all health information on individuals. Imagine giving everyone a unique financial identifier that they would use for all credit cards, banks, retailers, and other financial institutions. Would you feel your money was secure?

A surprising amount of patients already do not trust a paper-based system, and fear for their privacy even more with expanding Health IT. Having a UPI takes away the idea of patient control and consent, creating one very easy and obvious way for anyone with the means necessary to look up a patient’s full health record. Patients will only accept a system they can control.